


Broken Hearts Club

by HeartxKang



Category: Day6 (Band)
Genre: Broken Hearts Club - Freeform, Heartbreak, M/M, They are sad, and lonely, but kinda not, kinda jaehyungparkian, they talk in a bar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-14
Updated: 2019-05-14
Packaged: 2020-03-05 08:29:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18824959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeartxKang/pseuds/HeartxKang
Summary: When Brian walks into the bar it is with heavy steps and a hurting heart. He just wants to get drunk and not feel the pain of his break up, but instead he ends up talking to Jae. A boy who also is just as heart broken, if not even more so.Or an AU where jaehyungparkian talks at a bar all night about their ex-boyfriends and get drunk.Inspired by the song "The broken hearts club" by gnash





	Broken Hearts Club

It was with heavy steps and head down Brian walked into the bar he chose for no other reason than that it was the one closest to his work. Well that, and also because it seemed to be a discreet place where he would be left alone. The lighting was dim and Brian’s eyes needed a couple of seconds to adjust to the new atmosphere. It was pretty empty, only a few people sitting by themselves in different booths, and a guy sitting by himself at the bar table talking to the bartender who looked pretty unamused. The mood over the bar was pretty gloomy, and the only thing to be heard was the low r&b playing out the speakers and mumbling from the booths. Brian walked up to the bar and chose one of the empty lined up seats.

“Broken hearts club?” the guy next to him asked with his eyes pinning Btian down as soon as he placed himself at the bar. Questioning Brian raised his left eyebrow, not sure what the boy next to him was referring to, even if he of course had his suspicions.   
“The way you walked in here, how you sat down and the expression in your eyes make it seem like you are someone who just got their heart broken” the stranger said. The accuracy sent shivers down Brian’s spine, and he didn’t know where to rest his eyes. He sure as hell did not want the stranger to keep on looking into them. “Is that right?”  
“Uhm, yeah I guess so” Brian was able to let out, still starled of the comment. Was he really that obvious? He might as well just tattoo “heartbroken” onto his forehead.   
“Then I welcome you, the newest member, to the broken hearts club” the stranger poured the last bit of his drink into his mouth and slamming the empty glas against the bar top. “We are all the same here.”   
“One more please!” the stranger yelled over to the bartender. “And one for the gentleman next to me as well.”  
Brian was just about to protest, he didn’t need that odd stranger to buy him a drink, yet who was he trying to fool? He had stepped into the bar for one reason only; To get drunk. And if he was getting free drinks it only supported his purpose, so there was no point in declining.   
“What did you say your name was again?” the stranger asked before Brian was able to say anything.  
“I didn’t” he mumbled. “It’s Brian.”  
“Jae.” 

The bartender placed a pint of beer in front of Brian, who immediately took a big sip. The cold beverage felt good against his dry throat. He let out a deep sigh per atomatic, not even being aware of it himself. This was not the way Brian had expected his week to go. It was like a chain of falling dominoes of bad events.  
“Thanks for the beer” Brian nodded to Jae, who already was almost half way down with his drink.   
“No problem” Jae answered. “Now talk to me.”   
Brian raised his eyebrows in response. Talk to him about what? It was pretty clear that Brian did not want to talk, or at least that was what he thought. The lack of smile on his face, bags under his eyes and deep sighs did not exactly scream sociable. Jae had even noticed it as soon as Brian had walk through the door that he was not feeling good, but then why would he push for Brian to talk to him?   
“I mean, you’re clearly heart broken. Talk to me and I promise you’ll feel better.” Jae continued when he saw the confused look on Brian’s face. “I will say all the mean things you need to hear about the bastard that hurt you.”  
“Well, I’m afraid it’s not that much of a story” Brian sighed again and took another sip of his beer. He wondered if the story about his heartbreak actually was something he should share, with a complete stranger even.   
“I have heard a lot of stories, and judging by the way you look, you were hurt pretty bad. So I would say you have a story to tell.”  
Brian could not understand at all where Jae was getting all this from. Sure, Brian was looking pretty rough, with his undone hair and wrinkled shirt he had worn for two days straight. Yet, how was that enough for Jae to tell that Brian was badly hurting on the inside? Because Jae was not wrong, Brian was heartbroken, to the point where the pain in his chest hurt so bad it made it hard for him to breathe.   
“Basically he said he didn’t need me anymore” Brian finally said. It was a simple answer, not too detailed, but still enough of an answer. The thought of spilling his heart out did not appeal to Brian the slightest. It had been much more that a hurtful break up; it had been the worst day in Brian’s life. 

It had all started like any day; Brian woke up next to Sungjin who was still asleep. Carefully, not to wake up the sleeping boy, Brian slipped out of bed and went straight to the kitchen. Perfectly in time for when Sungjin woke up, Brian entered the bedroom with a reeking cup of coffee in each hand.   
“Good morning” Brian handed over one of the cups to Sungjin and crawled back in bed. Sungjin grunted an answer back, he had never been much of a morning person. Both of them picked up their phone, and started to scroll through social media to see what they missed during the night as they drink their coffee. No one said much, but they did not feel the need to. This had been their morning routine ever since the two of them moved in together. Everything was just like normal, even when they got up fifteen minutes later and got ready to head to their calling duties. 

It all turned that evening after they both had gotten home from work, after dinner as they watched a show together. Brian was only paying half of his attention to what happened on the TV, and the other half was being focused to keep himself awake. It had been a long day at work, so when Sungjin out of nowhere just turned the TV off in the middle of the episode, Brian did not even think about it.   
“Brian, we need to talk” Sungjin turned to Brian.   
“Sure, what is it?”   
“I want to break up.”  
“Wait, what?” Brian sat up straight, he did not understand where Sungjin was coming from, he thought it was some kind of joke. “Like break up-break up?”   
“Yes, I think we should go our separate ways.” Sungjin’s voice was calm and collected. He knew exactly what he was saying, like he had planned it ahead. It only confused Brian more. There had been nothing leading up to that moment that would have prepared Brian for it. He opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again, there were no right words to say in the moment. The tears started pushing behind Brian’s eyes, and he aggressively blinked to force them away. A few minutes of silence in the strained air of the living room Brian finally came up with the only thing to say that he could think of:  
“Why? Can I just ask you why?” The words were weak, Brian’s voice barely being able to carry them. Sungjin looked at Brian, his face showed no emotion, except his eyes were a glimpse of sadness flashed by.   
“The time I have spent with you have been amazing” Sungjin started off. “But I need to live life on my own for a while. I need to be independent and focus on myself, just like live freely.”  
“So you think I’m holding you back?” Brian forced out, not being able to hold the tears back for much longer. “You think I’m not letting you live life.”   
“That’s not what I meant” Sungjin objected.  
“Then what do you mean?!” Brian’s voice reached a high pitch. “I can’t understand what you are saying, or what I have done make you feel like you can’t live the life you want.”  
“I just-” Sungjin paused himself, like he needed a moment to think how he should fraise whatever was going on inside his head. “I have had the feeling the last couple of months that this relationship isn’t right. It does not feel right.”  
“It. Does. Not. Feel. Right.” Brian repeated slowly, emphasising every word. He was still so lost in what had just happened. All he could understand was that Sungjin wanted to break up with him, but he could not understand what had felt off for Sungjin. Brian had not noticed any changes in the relationship the past months, nor in Sungjin’s behavior.   
“I think I should go” Sungjin stood up and looked at Brian.   
“What? Where are you going?” Brian asked. It was their shared apartment, it belonged to them both.   
“I didn’t think you would want to sleep in the same bed as me after what I just told you” Sungjin explained. He was not wrong, sleeping in the same bed as someone who Brian now knew did not want to be there did not appeal, yet sleeping alone in their big bed just seemed like a even worse scenario. “I’m crashing at Mark’s tonight.”  
“Oh, okay” It was the best response Brian could come up with, so he stayed quiet as he followed Sungjin to the door.

Just as Sungjin laid his hand on the handle Brian realised he had one more thing to ask.  
“Sungjin, I just have one more question before you leave” Brian said, looking straight at him. “Do you still love me?”  
“No, I don’t.” Sungjin answered without hesitation, looking straight into Brian’s eyes. “I’m sorry.”   
Then he opened the door and walked out. Walked out of their shared apartment, walked out of their relationship and walked out of Brian’s life. As Brian saw the one he loved walk away, he could not hold back the tears any longer. They streamed down his face and not being able to keep himself up, he fell to his knees. In his chest there was a stabbing pain, like a knife cutting right through. It hurt, it hurt so bad. Hurtful, loud sobbings left Brian’s throat as it felt like he was breaking apart. It felt like he was going to die. Brian did not know how long he laid on the hallway floor, crying and screaming with pain before he eventually gathered the last bit of energy he had and carried himself to his bed, pulling the covers over him. 

 

It was far too much of an emotional story for Brian to ever talk about aloud, especially not a stranger he met only earlier that night. So the short and simple answer had to do, as long as Jae did not ask follow up questions. Brian finished up what was left in his glass, he was going to have to be a lot more intoxicated to get through the night. Jae, who noticed the empty glass in front of Brian, was quick to order new drinks.  
“I can relate to that” Jae sighed, as the bartender placed the drinks in front of them. “I also wasn’t needed anymore. Or to be more specific; I was replaced.”  
“Oh, that sucks” Brian responded without much interest in his voice. Frankly speaking he did not really care about the strangers sappy love life.   
“Yeah, Wonpil, that’s my ex, left me for someone else.” Jae did not seem to notice that Brain was completely uninterested in his story, or perhaps he just ignored it. “He met this dude at his job, Dowoon, and decided he wanted to be with him instead. Sure, Dowoon might be younger and more fun, but like do you just leave your boyfriend of five years like that? For someone you have known less than two months?”  
“Wow, what an asshole” Brian said, still lacking of enthusiasm. It was not that he meant to be rude, he just had too much problems of his own to handle someone else’s.   
“I probably should be glad he at least didn’t cheat on me” Jae sighed. “Wonpil promised he hadn’t done anything with Dowoon until he broke it off with me, but who knows if that’s the truth?”  
“Would it have hurt more if he had cheated on you?” Brian asked, letting his eyes meet Jae’s for a split second, before looking down at the bartop again.   
“Yes. No. Actually I don’t know.” Jae replied after seconds of thinking the question over, and Brian nodded understandingly.

The mood over the whole bar was heavy. A few people had come and gone during the time Brian had been placed at the bar, drinking with Jae.  
“Why is this place so depressing?” Brian muttered to himself. His mood had only become sadder since he stepped inside, and if it had not been for the alcohol in his blood he would have been a sobbing mess.   
“Because this is the place for the heart broken” Jae answered the question, even though it was not meant for him.   
“Huh?” Brian looked up.   
“This bar is where all the heart broken people end up. Everyone here is just like you and me.”  
Brian took a quick look around, and even though there was not a lot of people in the bar, everyone around him did indeed have a sad expression on their face. The majority of people were also sitting alone with empty glasses surrounding them. Shivers ran down Brian’s spine, what even was this place? God, he needed more alcohol and another order of beer solved that problem..

“Can I ask you a personal question?” Jae asked out of nowhere after a few minutes of silence. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”  
Brian nodded, even though he rather not have the question asked. He was in a too vulnerable state for personal questions. And besides Jae saying he had the option to answer or not, kind of made him forced to answer. If he did not, Brian knew Jae would probably assume whatever answer suited Jae’s preferences the best. Not answering also meant that it seemed like Brian had something to hide, which he might have had, but that would not have made him look good.  
“Did you love him? Your ex?” Jae carefully asks. It is the first time the whole night Jae have seemed careful with his words. “Like did you think you were going to spend the rest of your life with him?”  
The loaded question is not what Brian had expected, and for a moment he looks at Jae startled.   
“Yes” Brian finally sighs. “I did.”  
There is no point in trying to hide the truth, because it did not matter anymore. Sungjin did not want to be a part of Brian’s life anymore, so there was only one way out: to let him go. By this point it did not matter that Brian had started to think about proposing, that he even had looked at rings because what he and Sungjin had was gone, and Brian was left hurt and alone.

“So how long has it been for you? Since you broke up I mean?” Brian tried to steer the focus off of him and his failed relationship where the wounds had not even started to heal. He had opened up enough to Jae, now it was the other’s time to talk.  
“Five months.” Jae looked at Brian, fixing their eyes together, forcing Brian to look away.  
“Oh wow” Brian sighed as he stared into his glass of beer. “I guess it takes time to get over someone.”  
“I’m over him” Jae responded immediately, a second too fast to make it believable. Brian raised his eyebrows towards Jae, making it clear he did not believe him.   
“Then why are you here?” I thought this was the place for the heartbroken” Brian questions calmly, not giving any sense of judgement in his voice. A smile started to spread across Jae’s face, revealing that Brian had hit jackpot with his question.  
“That’s an excellent question my friend” Jae grins. “Do you know what all heart broken people have in common?”   
“They are sad?” Brian said but it came out more like a question since he had no idea where this conversation was going.  
“Yes exactly, but do you know what comes with sadness? Loneliness.” Jae’s voice had become louder and higher and he gesticulated heavily with his arms. “And all lonely people want is not to be lonely, and that’s where I come into the picture.”  
“Wait what?” The alcohol had started to kick in, making his brain process things a little slower, but when his eyes met Jae’s smirk in the right corner of his mouth and the eyebrows that were slightly raised it all clicked. “You are here to get laid.”   
“Bingo.”   
Brian did not even know what to respond to that. He had not ever met someone like Jae before, and the more they talked the more intrigued Brian became of hm. Or at least as intrigued as he could be in his sad state of mind.   
“Than who is your target for tonight?” Brian asked and looked around for someone who seemed to be a good fit.   
“Considering I have only talk to you so far tonight, and it’s getting pretty late..” Jae paused himself. Their eyes met and Brian realised immediately where this conversation was going. Brian’s face heated up at the thought of going home with Jae. He was not at all ready to sleep with someone new, he was in a million pieces for god’s sake!   
“Sorry, I’m not going home with you” Brian squealed, flustered. Jae let out a bubbly laugh, the first one of the whole night.   
“I know you’re not, you are way to much of a mess right now” Jae teased and shook his head lightly. “Besides, I don’t really think my charms have been working on you.”  
Brian could not help but to let out a small slime, even though it quickly disappeared. Jae was right, the thought of going home with Jae that night was not really intriguing to say the least.   
“Well, I have to use the restroom, I’ll be right back” Jae stood up, but just before he left he signalised to the bartender for two more drinks. 

The new beers arrived quickly, and Brian nodded a thanks to the bartender, who throughout the whole night had been pretending not to hear the conversation between Jae and Brian.   
“Hey, can I ask you something?” Brian said to the bartender as he brought the beers over. This was the perfect time to get some inside information out of him about the Jae, who seemed to be a regular at the bar.   
“Sure.” The bartender responded.   
“What’s up with that dude?” Brian asked. “Is Jae here a lot?”  
The bartender gave Brian a look he could not quite place what it ment.  
“Well yes, he’s a regular.” The bartender simply said.   
“Is it true that he often finds his one night stands here?”   
The bartender chuckled quietly, and shook his head.  
“Jae said that? Unbelievable.”  
Brian looked at the bartender confused, wanting more information about the topic.   
“He is quite good at talking people up, but never actually goes home with them, even if he gets the offer.”  
“Oh” Brian was not quite sure how to respond. Jae had apparently been lying about sleeping with others, but why? In the back of the bar the sound of a door opening and closing was heard. The bartender spotted Jae right away, and discreetly leaned in towards Brian.  
“Between you and me, I think Jae is in a lot worse state than he appears to be.” The bartender whispered before he went back to his duties, just as Jae came back next to Brian. Thinking of the bartender’s words Brian took a proper look at Jae, an realised something that he had not seen before. Jae looked bad, not in the way where he was ugly, quite the opposite, but in the way where it looked like he had had a rough time. His blonde hair was an unstyled mess, his face seemed to be a few days past shaving day and on his nose bridge a pair of glasses rested, covering up the dark patches underneath his eyes. If it had been under other circumstances where they were not in a dark bar and Jae had a few nights of good sleep and proper shower, Brian would probably have found him pretty attractive. Something changed inside of Brian’s brain when he noticed how fragile the boy next to him actually seemed to be. Jae was big in his words, but it was all for show. He was putting up a wall around him, so people would not come too close. Jae may have said he was over his ex, but Brian now understood it was a lie. Or perhaps Jae actually thought he was over Wonpil, but he clearly was not, or he would not be in the state he was. 

Once Brian came to the realisation that the Jae he had talked to all night actually was not the real version of himself, he suddenly became much more interested in Jae and their conversation. Brin also started noticing other things he had not noticed about Jae earlier, like how he every now and then became quiet and stared distantly into his glass of beer, like his mind was somewhere else. It only lasted for some seconds before he forced a smile on his lips again and shared a joke with Brian. It was also how Brian noticed that whenever he talked, no matter what it was about, Jae sincerely paid his whole attention towards Brian. Being an active listener and taking in everything Brian had too say, giving it some thought and responding.It was also when personal things about Brian was being discussed, Jae talked very carefully not to say the wrong things. Jae was not actually as full of himself that he had appeared to be. The longer into the night they stayed at the bar talking while sipping beers, the more Brian actually started to like Jae. It had taken a complete turn from thinking he was annoying, to actually enjoying the company. They had moved on from the topic of heartbreak to more everyday topics, like work and interests. For instance Brian found out Jae also was into music like himself, and that he worked in a bookstore. The more they talked, the more Brian realised that Jae was the type of person he would like to have around him in life. Once the wall around Jae was broken down, a funny and easy going guy appeared, as well as he was a good listener and enjoyable company. 

 

Eventually the time came that the bar closed. It was getting late, and Brian had stayed much longer than planned as well as one too many beers. It was time for him to go home. Out of the pocket of his coat he pulled out some cash to pay for the drinks, that he slided over the bartop. Then he pulled out his business card and slid it over to Jae.  
“Call me when you’re over your ex” Brian gave him a small smile. “Because by the time you are, maybe I’m over mine too, and I wouldn’t mind getting to know you better.”  
“Oh, but I told you, I’m over him.” Jae picked up the card and looked at it, before looking up at Brian.   
“I don’t think you are.” Brian answered simply. “I think you are much more broken than I am, but you don’t want to accept it, so you pretend to be just fine.”  
Jae let his gaze drop from Brian’s face, and stared at the floor instead. He did not say anything, and Brian took that as a sign that he had hit Jae somewhere it felt. Brian took a couple steps forward, so he stood right next to Jae.  
“Let yourself be sad, it’s okay” Brian placed his hand on the other boy’s shoulder. “And when you feel better, call me.”   
Without waiting for a response from Jae, Brian walked out from the bar. The cold night air hit him in the face, and he pulled his coat tighter around himself. It had been an interesting night, and he honestly was not a hundred percent sure what actually happened. But he secretly hoped that in a couple months or so, he would get a call from Jae. Brian felt like the night they had spent together in a beaten down bar, could be the start of something. It sure had not ended to Brian’s satisfaction. He felt the need to see Jae sober up, and get himself together, because the boy he saw glimpses of underneath the mask Jae had put on seemed like someone Brian would like to have in his life. No matter if it was as a friend or something more. But what had happened during the night was enough for the moment. Brian was longing for sleep and his soft bed, so he steered his steps right back to his apartment, where he passed out as soon as he closed his eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> Wihoo I finally posted my first AU in six months. I actually started writing this one in November, but didn't pick it up again until now. It is quite simple, withut much of a plot really, but I still hope you liked it and comments and kudos as always makes me very happy. Thank you for reading :)


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